X: the little social network with less than a billion members

23 October 2026

If social media/social network platforms were compared to planets, then X, previously Twitter, would be the Pluto of the solar system; a dwarf planet.

Because unlike its peers, X, twenty years after launching in 2006, is still well short — make that a long way short — of joining the one-billion-member club.

Should we take a leaf out of the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) handbook, when they re-determined Pluto’s status? ¹ Should commercial social platforms with fewer than one-billion users, be classified as dwarf platforms?

According to Search Engine Land, X has about five-hundred-and-sixty million users. Facebook (FB), launched in 2004, has some three-billion members. Instagram, albeit a FB offshoot, has a similar user count. This from launching in 2010. TikTok, online since 2016, now has nearly two-billion members.

A chart of the top social media/social network platforms ², based on monthly active users, published by Salesforce, has X ranked at a lowly number twelve. On the other hand, it is twice as popular as LinkedIn. The news isn’t all bad for X.

Everyone loves dwarf planets

I don’t like bagging out dwarf planets, so I’ll go easy on X. For a social media platform, the old micro-blogging service — is X still considered a micro-blogging service? — punches above its weight.

The brand is ubiquitous. Only five-hundred-and-sixty million people call themselves members, but find me someone who hasn’t heard of X. Though we mustn’t forget X stands on the shoulders of a (somewhat) giant called Twitter.

Even before the current owner took over, resulting in what seemed like daily headlines for months, nearly everyone knew the Twitter name. Something someone said or did on Twitter, was often reposted in mainstream news reporting, and often as an embedded tweet.

As of January 2024, X was the sixth largest referrer of website traffic, although the figure sounds more impressive than it is. X accounted for a modest two-point-three percent of referrer traffic, but was still among the top platforms, albeit well overshadowed by Google.

There’s billion member potential here, but where is everyone?

Twitter and X, were, and are, well, different

The platform is two-decades old. Why has it not enjoyed the stratospheric-level success of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others?

When decentralised social platform Mastodon rose to prominence in 2022, people were hesitant to get involved. They found Mastodon was way too confusing. Why couldn’t it “be easy to figure out like Twitter”, was a common refrain a few years ago.

But if Twitter was so user-friendly then, why did so many people stay away?

Part of the answer lies in the platform’s early simplicity. In the beginning Twitter was a text only medium. Further, posts/tweets were restricted to one-hundred-and-forty characters. It was like text messaging for the web. A lot of people found the tweet limit as challenging as signing up to Mastodon. Others, of course, thrived on this brevity.

But there was no support early on for images and video. People didn’t like walls of text, even when they weren’t particularly sizeable. Things changed though. Today, you’d probably be hard pressed to find a post without a photo or animation. And X users who are prepared to pay for premium membership, can write posts containing up to twenty-five thousand characters.

Had X, while still Twitter, launched with imagery and a larger character limit, it could well be part of the billion member club by now.

Then there is the elephant in the room; the current owner. In taking the platform in the direction he did, some users, existing and potential, were put off. To say the least.

If I were to make the simplistic assertion that half of people are conservative in their politics, and the other half something else (not the way things really work of course), then possibly alienating potentially half of a user base isn’t clever.

This will probably be why X will not achieve a membership of one billion. X is a planet that may well be doomed to remain a dwarf.

1. In 2006 no less. Oh, the irony. ↩
2. If you consider the likes of YouTube, WhatsApp, and Telegram to be social networks. ↩

Sales of cappuccino sachets soar as cost of living bites in Australia

22 October 2026

Martin Brown, who is the general manager of Nestlé’s coffee and dairy business in Australia, said cappuccino sachets have been the “fastest-growing part of the market” since 2021.

We keep a few boxes of cappuccino sachets in the kitchen cupboard for days when we don’t want to walk all of five to ten minutes to a nearby cafe for whatever reason. Too hot, too wet, whatever.

Driving isn’t feasible either, unless we decide to go to a neighbouring suburb. Parking is a lottery where we are, and the only spot I’d find would probably be outside our building anyway.

Despite the rampant popularity of sachet and instant coffee though, none of the cafes I go seem to be adversely effected. They’re trading, and appear to have the same number of staff working there.

We are talking about a busy retail and residential precinct though. But it’s the same story on the NSW Central Coast. None of the places we go to there have closed or reduced staff. Not so far anyway.

And may it stay that way.

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The Last Best Place On The Internet, a book about Wikipedia, by Richard Cooke

21 October 2026

Sydney, Australia, based author and journalist Richard Cooke explores the inner workings of online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is his recently published book, The Last Best Place On The Internet:

In this entertaining book, journalist Richard Cooke delves into Wikipedia’s fabled creation, its extraordinary success and its profound effects on politics, business, literature and society. He explores the site’s shifting role in establishing fact in a time of deep uncertainty about truth and authority; the often hilariously fierce debates between ‘Inclusionists’ and ‘Deletionists’ about what is worth knowing and preserving, and who gets to decide; and the great peril Wikipedia faces today from bots, political division and artificial intelligence.

The challenges confronting Wikipedia are certainly pronounced. Let’s hope Cooke’s work does not become a commemoration for the venerable online repository of knowledge and information.

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton wins number one in Top 100 Australian Books poll

20 October 2026

Listeners of ABC Radio National recently voted Cloudstreet, the 1991 novel by Fremantle based Australian author Tim Winton, to the top spot in the Top 100 Australian Books poll.

Cloudstreet won a number of literary awards, including the 1992 Miles Franklin prize for Australian literature, and went on to be adapted for stage and television. It is quite the yarn:

After two separate catastrophes, two very different families leave the country for the bright lights of Perth. The Lambs are industrious, united and — until God seems to turn his back on their boy Fish — religious. The Pickleses are gamblers, boozers, fractious, and unlikely landlords.

Chance, hardship and the war force them to swallow their dignity and share a great, breathing, shuddering joint called Cloudstreet. Over the next twenty years they struggle and strive, laugh and curse, come apart and pull together under the same roof, and try as they can to make their lives.

Other titles among the top ten include The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden, and The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.

Meta subscription plans are turning links into gold

20 October 2026

Charlotte Tobitt, writing for Press Gazette, about subscription plans Meta introduced last month, that effectively monetise the posting of links from some Facebook and Instagram pages:

Under the Meta One trial, those restricted from posting links would have to pay $49.99 (£37.65) per month to post eight links, $149.99 (£112.98) to post 20, or $499.99 (££376.60) for an unlimited number (alongside the other perks included).

These are monthly fees, not annual. Three-hundred-and seventy-pounds — for the “unlimited” monthly plan — equates to more than seven-hundred Australian dollars.

Seven-hundred Australian is considerably less than the annual hosting fees I pay for this website, on a yearly basis. Not to mention I have the option to host multiple websites under the same plan. And obviously post as many links as I want. It could be though Meta subscribers on the unlimited plan can post unlimited links across an unlimited number of Meta hosted pages. Good for them.

But the premium for convenience, that is, not having to pay to for website hosting, a domain name, nor oversee website maintenance procedures, seems exorbitant to say the least.

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Taika Waititi film adaptation of Klara and the Sun slammed by critics

19 October 2026

Not the news I wanted to hear: Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Klara and the Sun, has been slammed by critics at preview screenings. The consensus seems to be the New Zealand/Aotearoa filmmaker overdid his signature whimsy bringing Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel, which I liked, to the big screen.

This was something I wondered about after seeing the trailer in June. At the time I wrote if Taika Waititi is directing, we’re going to get Taika Waitit. But his flamboyant style is perhaps not ideal for a novel such as Klara and the Sun, the tone of which could be best described as sombre.

Other adaptations of Ishiguro novels better — perfectly in fact — reflect their haunting source material. The Remains of the Day, and Never Let Me Go, directed by James Ivory, and Mark Romanek respectively, among them. The book is better than the film? Seems the case for Klara and the Sun.

AI, absence of Eisenberg, Fincher, see The Social Reckoning flop

16 October 2026

Brent Lang writing for IndieWire:

With only one member of its creative team returning, Sony Pictures shied away from selling it as a sequel, but the studio still sprinkled bits of “The Social Network’s” DNA into promotional materials.

The Social Reckoning, directed by Aaron Sorking, a continuation of sorts of 2010’s The Social Network, is poorer, it seems, for the absence of David Fincher, and Jesse Eisenberg. Fincher’s obligations to Netflix kept him away, while Eisenberg, among other things, didn’t want to repeat himself.

Recent controversies surrounding AI, the Hugging Face hack, and claims the technology could result in humanity’s extinction, have also apparently proved to be significant distractions.

You can’t do anything without AI somehow meddling. Despite The Social Reckoning not doing too well at the box office, I’d still like to see it, though that will probably be by streaming.

Richard Linklater to spend twenty years making another film

15 October 2026

The American director, whose credits include Boyhood, and the Before trilogy, began filming Merrily We Roll Along in 2019. The story spans twenty years, and Linklater wants the characters, portrayed by Paul Mescal, Beanie Feldstein, and Ben Platt, to be seen ageing over this time.

He has to be commended for not trying to achieve this some other way.

Stories playing out across lengthy time frames are Linklater’s forte. Boyhood, was filmed over twelve years, while the three Before stories were made nine years apart, between 1995 and 2013.

With Merrily We Roll Along we have to wait until around 2040 to see if the two decade time investment was worthwhile. I doubt Linklater will disappoint though.

Come back Twitter/X, all is forgiven

14 October 2026

Since its acquisition by Elon Musk in 2022, Twitter/X has been considered a neighbourhood on the wrong side of the tracks. But not any more. Things have changed. Now it’s the place to be. Because, among other things, the platform is “cheerful” and “inclusive”. So say some people.

But the question is vexed, the matter of Twitter/X being either in, or out of, favour. Especially for long time users, people there since the platform’s inception in 2006. I doubt many of them think all that highly of the present owner. Or the direction the platform has gone.

A change of management, and outlook, was not something the majority of these early adaptors wanted, nor asked for. They were just picked up, and carried along with it. People who spent years cultivating profile, and in some cases, large followings. For them, the prospect of having to migrate somewhere else, leave behind the most of their followers, and start again, was daunting.

Best then to keep calm and carry on. Twitter/X, on the whole, may not be “cheerful” or “inclusive”, but it is vast. It is possible to carve out corners free of hate speech and warped political ideologies. And that might be ok for some people whose livelihoods depend on their Twitter/X followings. Provided they are able to stay in their own lanes. Even if that sounds like being in a gilded cage.

But the warnings that something might go wrong were there from the beginning.

Just about everyone I once knew on Twitter/X, started out as a blogger. At the time, Twitter/X, and other social networks, were seen as an “outpost” for someone’s blog. A small something on the side. They were a convenient, fun even, way for a blogger to network, spread the word, and make friends, but all roads led back to their website, which was sacrosanct.

Because, even twenty years ago, people knew they were merely occupying a room in someone else’s house. The concern then though was the house rules might change without notice. Or we might wake up one morning and find the property had been demolished, was gone.

No problem though, our blogs and websites were still there. But Twitter/X was too convenient, too fun, too easy. The time had come to go “all in” with the platform, and forget about blogs.

Of course, no saw what happened to Twitter/X, coming. Even that wouldn’t have mattered though, had those former bloggers not become so dependent on the platform. If they had kept their websites, and concentrated their online presence in a space they had control and ownership of.

But that’s moot point. Discussion isn’t about websites. It’s about which social media platform is not as bad as the others. Threads is dross. Mastodon is fringe. Bluesky is in decline. But Twitter is ok. No one’s saying social media is good, is the answer, is the way forward. They’re only saying it’s tolerable.

If that doesn’t say anything about the state of the world today, what does?

Anne Carson awarded 2026 Literature Noble Prize

13 October 2026

Canadian poet and writer Anne Carson has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature.

I’m not the biggest fan of poetry, but poets, particularly Evelyn Araluen, have been doing well in some of the literary awards in recent years, which is certainly a boost for the craft.

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